Beacon 428: Spirit of Fire

Prologue

“What’s wrong Serena?” Captain Cutter was no stranger to emergency cryo thaws, but he knew that a thaw that quick meant something was up.

“Captain, a malfunction in our reactor caused a burst of the engines, and we are now entering the gravitational pull of the planet we have been orbiting for approximately 3.7 months. Due to the malfunction in the reactor, our engines are offline, and we are gaining velocity.” Serena, the “Smart” AI aboard Spirit of Fire, could find and solve many problems faster than most AI, but this problem she could not solve by herself.

“Serena, what planet is that?” Captain Cutter sounded less than enthused, still sore after the quick thaw.

“This planet is not a UNSC colony; it isn’t in any known star maps. It is not likely covenant either, as there are no spacecraft anywhere. However scans do show signs of life, unknown if covenant or not.” Serena was still analyzing the data she collected. This place had many… odd forms of life. Not covenant, not human, but similar to Earth creatures. Serena saw she was pondering the subject far too long, and decided to let it rest.

“Serena, thaw out everyone.” Captain Cutter gave Serena the order without even a hint of his previous annoyance.

“Thawing out everyone so we can crash while awake. Aye sir.” Serena’s hologram disappeared from the panel and she began to thaw out the crew rather fast, while she thawed out the soldiers slower, trying to prevent anything that would affect their combat skills.

A few minutes later the bridge was filled with its crew, all entering commands furiously into their consoles, directing repairs, diverting power, firing up weapons systems, etc.

“Weapons systems online in 2 minutes!”

“Reserves on standby, diverting all unnecessary power to weapons and cryo!”

“Reactor is offline! Cooling tanks 1 through 3 are leaking!”

“Pumping in coolant from tanks 4 through 7!” The sounds of the bridge were what Cutter had missed. Though they could have been under different circumstances.

“Captain! Reactor is offline, estimated repair time is 2 months, if we had the material.” Ensign Levell sounded as if he were facing an Elite Honor Guard with a slingshot. Scared, but somewhat determined. Captain Cutter grunted unhappily.

“Alright, men! Prepare the Spirit for a crash landing!” Almost immediately the bridge crew started entering commands, faster than before. Captain Cutter took the time to give orders to his passengers.

“Attention, all combat teams except for Omega are to report to the barracks, Spirit of Fire is initiating an unassisted landing. Omega team, report to the bridge ASAP!” Captain Cutter’s voice blared through the intercoms as he continued to issue orders. Within a few minutes, Omega team entered the bridge, and all activity stopped as the crew stared at them. Spartan 092 Jerome, Spartan 130 Alice, and Spartan 042 Douglas.Captain Cutter finished giving orders and walked over to the Spartans.

"Omega team, pleased you could make it." Captain Cutter tried to lighten the mood of having three men who looked as alien as the covenant in the bridge.

"Traffic wasn't too bad, sir." Douglas joked. That got a smile out of Levell.

"Spartans, we are about to land on that planet," Captain Cutter told them, while heading to the holoboard. "We need you to scout and observe the possible intelligent lifeforms Serena found in her scan. It looks like there are towns and cities all across the planet. You will use drop pods to land in this forest, then you will head to the town marked on your HUDs. Stay away from the locals, and transmit visuals as soon as you get eyes on. You are NOT to fire unless fired upon." Captain Cutter explained their mission to the Spartans.

"Yes sir." The Spartans said in unison.

"Oh, and one more thing. You will need to stay light on your feet, no heavy equipment." Captain Cutter broke the news, and the Spartans thought of their new weaponry. As soon as they got to the armory, Jerome took a Sniper Rifle, along with 2 SMGs, 4 mags for each gun. Alice took a MA5B Assault Rifle, and the standard issue magnum. 10 sixty round magazines for the MA5 and 7 mags for the magnum. Douglas took the M319 Grenade Launcher, 2 SMGs, and a medic kit. 10 HE/EMP Nades for the M319, and 6 Magazines for the SMGs. While the Spartans were getting their weapons and equipment, the Spirit of Fire started to enter the atmosphere.

===

Twilight just couldn’t sleep tonight, she felt something important was going on, but what would happen at 4:00 AM? The sun would be up in an hour or two, and she hadn’t been asleep since 3! She felt a sudden urge to go outside, at first she resisted it, but she finally gave in, deciding it was too much to handle. Twilight stepped outside onto the balcony, only to see that the lights at the top of Sugar Cube Corner were on.

That’s odd…why would Pinkie be up so late?

She decided against going to see Pinkie, not wanting to wake up the cakes.

Twilight returned to her room in the library, but she still had that urge. She decided to look through her telescope, she hadn’t done that in weeks. Maybe the urge was to look into space? She decided to try it, the urge was becoming stressful. Twilight walked over to her observatory, and looked through her telescope, only to see an eye. She jumped back, startled. Just then, Pinkie Pie fell through the hole in the roof of the hollowed tree.

“Pinkie?! How did you? Nevermind. What are you doing here?” Twilight asked the pink pony.

“Hiya Twi! I couldn’t sleep, and I had a feeling that I needed to look out the window. So I did, and your lights were on, so, I came here! Can you not sleep either? Wait! Don’t tell me you’re having a Friday party without me!” Pinkie enthusiastically said to Twilight.

“What? No! So, you are here to visit? At 4 AM?” Twilight asked, confused by Pinkie.

“Yep! Why? I thought we cou-” Pinkie’s sentence was cut short by her tail twitching, the twitch was so violent that it knocked the pony off her hoofs, and started bouncing her on the floor, into the wall.

“Pinkie!” Twilight screamed. She was as startled as Pinkie was.

“Make it stoooop!” Pinkie said, her voice sounding distorted as she bounced off the floor. Twilight immediately grabbed Pinkie, only to be bounced with her. As soon as Twilight was shaken off Pinkie, the twitching stopped. “Oh lookie there! It stopped!” Pinkie said, as enthusiastically as if it never happened.

“Pinkie? What caused THAT?!” Twilight asked, still frightened about the intensity of the twitch.

“Dunno, but since it was a twitchy tail, something must be falling! And something big!” Pinkie said, with her usual joy.

If Pinkie is right, and her Pinkie Sense has never been wrong, then what could the object be?! I better get the rest of the girls.

This is my first attempt at writing a fic at all, critics are welcome!